The "True Fans" of Diablo 3

It never ceases to amaze me. Blizzard has continually released awesome games; I don't believe they have released even a single game that has not been well received by the gaming public. And yet, somehow, when their latest games are announced (StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3!!!!!) the collective Borg force, known as the internet, gets up in arms about every single tiny little detail that is released about the games from day 1.

My latest experience is with listening to the self-proclaimed "true fans" of Diablo 3. It seems to me that no longer are Blizzard's games...well Blizzard's, because the internet seems to have claimed them as their own. I don't know how many times I've seen someone on the forums say "our game" or "my beloved game" when telling Blizzard how much something about the game sucks. Their attitude seems to run along the lines of "How dare you make a game the way you want it to...as if you own it!" (Which...they...do!). I'm not kidding here, people think this way. In the past Blizzard has made awesome games with minimal input from the fan community. What makes the fan community all of the sudden believe that without them Blizzard can't possible make a good game and that it is up to them to correct every mistake that Blizzard has so stupidly made? (In their oh so enlightened opinions...)

Blizzard has released one, single, solitary, 20 minute game play video for Diablo 3, meant to show off its graphics and some of its new features. While the normal fans of Diablo 3 go "COOOOOOOOOOL! That will be an awesome game!" the "true fans" are up in arms screaming "NOOOOOOOOOO! What have you done to OUR beloved game!!??". Normal fans see the potential in the game and recognize the video for what it is...a demo to get people excited. The true fans lament over the fact that the game isn't monochromatic and hard to see anymore and have even made a rather silly online petition (with worthless security, it's completely spammable). They want the look and feel of the old Diablos preserved (monochromatic, repetitive, generally a pain in the butt). They seem to believe that if you can see past your character's nose, then it's too bright.

Normal or real fans as I'll call them, recognize that the game will go through many changes before final release. Art will be altered slightly, textures will be updated, and the interface improved. "True Fans" write entire forum posts about how the entire game is going to be absolutely horrible because of some minute thing they picked out of one screenshot or one 5 second segment of the video. They seem to believe that that 20 minute video represented the ENTIRE game's content and that Blizzard has no idea what they are doing, and of course that they know exactly what Blizzard should do to fix the problem.

Oh, and of course there are the people who say "It looks like World of WarCraft!!" You won't believe how many people there are who think that because the new Diablo has color in it and a few textures have a cartoonish feel, that suddenly the game is like WoW!! Oh noes!!! Even if this were true, heaven forbid! It's not like WoW, in any way shape or form. The art style is simply Blizzard's style, not World of WarCraft! It's not even the same development/concept team for heaven's sake.

Basically, people need to get over themselves and just let Blizzard make their games (I could go on about what people say about StarCraft 2, but this post has gone on long enough). Post your thoughts if you want, give opinions, let Blizzard know what you think but PLEASE for the love of all that is good, quit trying to put your opinions across as fact. Just because you don't like what you see does not mean it sucks! It simply means that you don't like it. Anyways, Blizzard is far more likely to listen to constructive criticism than the ever present whiny, snarling, vindictive, arrogant, haughty, self-absorbed opinions put forth by the internet Borg.

I just want to say, great job Blizzard, keep up the good work and don't let the internet get you down.